Our Relationship with Israel

[The Thriller]

I know Rep Omar has been getting all of the attention recently for her anti-Israel tirade. While I didn't agree with everything she said and definitely didn't agree with her tone, I do however believe that she brought up a good point (that was unfortunately lost) about our relationship with Israel. Shouldn't we be working towards a two-state solution? Why is that dead? What are we doing to relieve the suffering from Palestinians caught in the apartheid happening there. Why are we hitching our wagon to such a corrupt and extreme leader, like Benjamin Netanyahu? Shouldn't we be standing up for humans rights and democracy in Israel? If so, then Benjamin shouldn't be our guy.

This is an interesting column by Max Boot, a Jewish American columnist with a conservative background. By recognizing Israel's annexation of the Golan Heights, we take off yet another bargaining chip for a possible two-state peace solution and give other strongmen (like Putin) credibility for their recently annexed lands. Trump, being the ignorant leader that he is, clearly didn't think of this before he abruptly made this decision. Yet it could yield long-term impacts that might not be in our best interests.

Trump claims his decision on the Golan Heights is just like his decision last year to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem — a move I supported. But he is wrong. The embassy move had been endorsed by Congress and promised by president after president, because West Jerusalem has been a part of the Israeli state since Day One. No previous president promised to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, and indeed President Ronald Reagan supported a 1981 U.N. Security Council resolution calling the annexation “null and void,” because all previous presidents had adhered to the principle of territorial integrity.

No longer. With this typically thoughtless and impetuous act, Trump is opening a Pandora’s box where states are allowed to change international borders by force. He is making not just Netanyahu but also Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping very happy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...e-mistake-middle-east/?utm_term=.c212eb5769c5

and from The Post's Editorial Board:

WITH SYRIA in chaos and Iran seeking to entrench its forces there, Israel has good reason to retain control of the Golan Heights. There is, at the moment, zero international pressure on the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to consider yielding the territory, and that is likely to be true for the foreseeable future. President Trump’s tweeted announcement Thursday that the United States will recognize Israel’s annexation of the Golan might consequently be written off as gratuitous — except for the damage it will do to U.S. diplomacy, in the Middle East and beyond.

For more than half a century, one of the foundations of U.S. Mideast policy has been U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which called on Israel to yield lands it occupied in the 1967 war for peace with its Arab neighbors. Mr. Trump’s casual ratification of Israel’s annexation, which Washington had resisted since 1981, adds an obstacle to any future peace negotiations between a reconstituted Syria and Israel. Previous Israeli governments, including under Mr. Netanyahu, considered a Golan-for-peace deal; what will be the basis for a settlement in the future?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...0ac73f49662_story.html?utm_term=.0664a11a642e

 

[Jazzta]

We should definitely stop financing the crooked government of Israel with US tax payers’ money, I know that much.

I also find it very ironic that some fellow party members of Rep Omar’s will rather take sides with Netanyahu’s neoconservative party.